Fulfill Your Quest For Global Domination Paradox Development Studio is back with the fourth installment of the award-winning Europa Universalis series. The empire building game Europa Universalis IV gives you control of a nation to guide through the years in order to create a dominant global empire.

March 26

1.11.4:
- Major optimization work done to AI and gamestate, should hopefully help for users that are reporting performance issues
- Fixed a bug where you would be counted as being an ally in war with another country despite not being at war at all
- Seven Cities: Fixed Quivira ultimate end event not working correctly due to bad scope scripting
- Fixed CTD occuring on integration caused by integrated country having 'empty' armies and navies
- AI: Now picks exploration ideas more frequently in random setup
- Fixed bug where date could be changed after loading a save game.
- Fixed another case where occupying just the coalition leader could lead to 100% warscore
- Fixed an issue where religious AI would 'freeze', ceasing all conversions until save was reloaded
- Fixed an issue where the AI would make suicidal declarations of war due to miscalculating on whether enemy allies would join
- Better default adjectives for Custom and Dynamic Random nations
- Improved tooltips for liberty desire
- It is no longer possible to add Custom Nations to Ironman save games.

1.11.3:
- More fixes to dynasties for Women in History events
- Coalition leader no longer gets increased War Enthusiasm if enemy warscore is 50% or more
- Being defeated by rebels no longer always gives +5 army tradition.
- Fixed an issue where users without El Dorado would constantly receive messages about treasure fleets arriving with 0 gold
- Fixed CTD in rebel factions caused by loading several saves after each other
- Fixed a bug where explorers would get stuck after reloading an ironman save while they were on an exploration mission
- Custom nation ships should no longer have rebel flags
- Maya collapsing should no longer release UPCA under ANY circumstances
- Terrain modifiers for fort defense now work correctly
- Marches now count less towards total power of vassals for the purpose of calculating Liberty Desire.
- Nations supporting independence now only increases liberty desire for vassals they are supporting and their allies.

1.11.2:
- Fixed revolutionary tricolors being all-white
- Splitting off a siege stack no longer puts general in the wrong stack
- Another fix to try and force clients who could not see Women in History to download the files

1.11.1:
- Doubled horde gold & tradition gain from looting.
- The Women in History DLC should now show up correctly in the launcher for everyone.
- Fixed various minor issues with dynasties, triggers and duplicate characters in the Women in History events.
- Ships no longer show manpower needed in reinforcement tooltip when not modded to cost manpower.
- remove_opinion and reverse_remove_opinion effects now work again.
- Random New World no longer crashes on start.
- Naval exploration slowed down. There's a new define SEA_EXPLORE_SPEED to control this.
- Treasure fleet tooltip will be immediately updated on tag change rather than at month's end, to prevent confusion.
- Fixed wrong custom colors for units after loading save game.
- Fixed male heirs sometimes getting female names in Custom Nations.
- Fixed Colonial nations of custom nations ruled by a succession of regency councils.
- Fixed CTD when creating client states from Custom or Dynamic Nations.
- Fixed assigning merchant to main trading port removes caravan trade power.
- Fixed Detach Siege can remove general if detaching army was too small.
- Fixed wrong custom colors for units after loading save game.
- Fixed Dynamic nations losing all flag colors after save (colors will be randomized if loading a save created before the fix).
- Natives can no longer rise up in uncolonized provinces taken by custom nation.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing the AI from exploring ocean provinces.
- Fixed a bug where female advisors would not be correctly saved as female on saving & reloading.
- Fixed meso/south american theologians having Western portraits
- Added missing localization for colonial nation names.
- Tweaked army tradition gain so that you gain some tradition even from crushing victories (you still get more for more even battles though)
- Fixed some cases where liberty desire still did not show on topbar for subjects.
- Fixed some missing localisations for colonial nations.

March 6

STOCKHOLM – The pages of history books are filled with the stories of great men – but also great women: artists, authors, councilors, and rulers. WouldTenochtitlan have fallen without the language skills of Malinche guiding Cortez? Had the reign of Edward IV not been cut short by illness, wouldEngland have still ruled the seas, deprived of the strong hand of Elizabeth I?

To mark International Women’s Day (March 8th) Paradox Development Studio has created a free update for Europa Universalis IV, adding 100 great women of history to the game. Each character can be generated through event triggers (a weak regency, a colonial empire, certain ideas, etc.). Players will then have choices about how to use this talented woman. Some may join your court as advisors, some might be suitable for riskier employment as rulers or leaders.

Thomas Johansson, the head of Paradox Development Studio, says that this DLC does something important for the company’s flagship title. "It's no surprise that the role of women in history isn't as well known as that of men,” Johansson says. “Europa Universalis, admittedly, hasn't done a lot to foreground their contributions. We thought that International Women's Day was the best time to do a little bit to help balance the scales and introduce our audience to some very interesting people." The DLC will contain the following features:

One Hundered new events for important women in history such as Queen Elizabeth I, Caterina Sforza and Sophie Germain.

Female advisors can appear at your court in place of their male counterparts.

Female portaits for all 22 advisor types in the game.

The Women’s History DLC is free for all Europa Universalis IV players and will be available on March 8th, 2015. Full patch notes!.

Digital Extreme Edition

STAR AND CRESCENT - 50 new Muslim themed event pictures, as well as several new events for the Muslim nations

HORSEMEN OF THE CRESCENT UNIT PACK - 12 unique cavalry modes for the Ottoman, Mamluk, and Persian nations. This enhances the visual experience of EUIV.

CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE MUSIC PACK - 3 tracks containing 10 new minutes of music masterly composed by Andreas Waldetoft

Steam Workshop

About This Game

Fulfill Your Quest For Global Domination

Paradox Development Studio is back with the fourth installment of the award-winning Europa Universalis series. The empire building game Europa Universalis IV gives you control of a nation to guide through the years in order to create a dominant global empire. Rule your nation through the centuries, with unparalleled freedom, depth and historical accuracy. True exploration, trade, warfare and diplomacy will be brought to life in this epic title rife with rich strategic and tactical depth.

Main Features

Make your own decisions: Nation building is completely flexible and the possibilities are endless.

Use your Monarch Power: Experience the new system of monarch power where your choices are influenced by the caliber of the man or woman you have at the top and will direct the ebb and flow of gameplay.

Experience history coming to life: The great personalities of the past are on hand to support you as you make your mark on thousands of historical events.

Turn the world into your playground: Enjoy hundreds of years of gameplay in a lush topographical map complete with dynamic seasonal effects.

Experience the all new trade system: The trade system adds a new dimension to the great trade empires of the period. Gain control of vital trade routes and make the wealth of the world flow to your coffers.

Bring out your negotiating skills in a deeper diplomatic system: Use coalitions, royal marriages and support for rebels and explore the possibilities of the new unilateral opinion system.

Engage in Cross-platform Multiplayer: Battle against your friends or try the co-operative multiplayer mode that allows several players to work together to control a single nation with up to 32 players. Featuring hotjoin, improved chat, new matchmaking servers and support for a standalone servers.

A rather complex grand strategy game, you pick a country to control starting from the year 1444 all the way to 1821. There isn't any fixed objective to aim for: it's a good idea to try to get the achievements offered (such as world domination), as most are a real challenge to earn.

Each country is divided into provinces, allowing movement of you armies from one to another in real time - nothing here is turn based. Battles aren't controlled by you, as in total war: you make your army walk onto the same province as an opposing army, and the battle outcome is decided in part by random dice rolls, and in part by factors you can influence, such as generals, terrain, morale of troops. The same can be said for naval battles, where different types of ships behave differently depending on what sea province you are fighting in, if they are in the open ocean, or in a closed sea (such as the Mediterranean).

Diplomacy is fairly well fleshed out, countries can have a number of different governments, such as feudal monarchies or merchant republics, all that give different bonuses and maluses, and some (such as republics) offer the possibility to choose what type of leader you want, so as to give you more of a certain type of monarch points. You can offer alliances, royal marriages, support rebels, create false claims on provinces you don't own to give you a "casus belli" (a reason to go to war) among other things, the list is really really huge.

Monarch points are a "limiting factor" in the game, you have 3 different types of monarch points (Administrative, Diplomatic, Military), each that serve different purposes. For example, military points can be spent to buy a new general, or to treat a province harshly if rebels are likely to rise up there. (As of the Art of War update, rebel mechanics have changes slightly. Instead of each province possibly spawning rebels depending on a percentage, now each rebel faction has a counter that goes up or down depending on your country's stability and province modifiers, such as nationalism, culture or religion. Once the counter reaches 100%, multiple stacks of rebels spawn). Other points can be used to change your capital, annex vassals, gain provinces in peace deals, create buildings and much more. The gain of monarch points depend on your ruler, that can give from 0 points each to 6 point each month. By spending some of your income, you can also hire advisors, that can add to your monthly monarch points income, and grant you some nationwide bonuses.

Trade is also a large factor in the game, you have merchants and you can choose to send them to various trade nodes, and you can choose if you want them to try and collect money from that node with a malus, or to send the money that you collect upstream, to a different node where you can collect from. Having colonies and trade agreements with other countries helps your trade income, while being embargoed reduces your trade in nodes that the country embargoing you controls.

Paradox has created a lot of DLC for this game, but with each DLC comes a vast amount of free content as well, so it might be advisable to buy the base game before buying DLC, so as to see what you think about the game before commiting too much. If you choose to play online with a friend that owns the DLCs, even without owining the DLCs yourself, the game activates them, so its possible to try them out before you buy. It would also be a good idea to try and watch a tutorial beforehand (Arumba on youtube comes to mind), as the game doesn't do a great job of explaining all it has to offer.

It's a very time-consuming, and occasionaly frustrating game, but I found that the more I played it, the more I enjoyed it: I'm constantly learning new things I can use to my adantage, and the game is becoming more satisfying due to that.

Never thought that a strategy game would be the most thrilling gaming experience I have.

But scrupulous, hour long planning and carefully forging alliances and marriages, while keeping an eye on which direction rival countries are sending their diplomats to, because one wrong move can turn your plans to dust, is much more addictive than you might think. The relief you feel, after a long term plan of yours is finally set into successful motion, is not describable.

One of the few games where careful planning and thinking is actually rewarded. No simple rock-paper-scissors battles like in other strategy games. Even though my enemy may have the bigger and more advanced army, I might have won the war through logistics already.

Everything that needs to be said about this game, has actually been said already, but I just can't pass on the chance to show my appreciation for it. I'm +90hrs in, and I'm still finding new ways to play this game, everytime I start it up. It's complex, deep and rewards the player that thinks on a larger scale. One of the best purchases I made in years.

There is a button in EUIV that allows you to "change culture" in a province. It costs Diplomatic power based on how deeply rooted the culture is in that province, and once it is completed you will have instilled your nation's primary culture in the province. The game tells you that the benefits of having your nation's culture in all of your provinces include higher taxes received from your citizens, and lower risk of revolts. So, of course you click the button. Who wouldn't want that?

What you may not realize is that by clicking that button, you are not introducing the local people to your nation's way of life. You are systematically wiping that culture off the map. You begin the slaughter of an entire people.

Genocide is literally a click away. And you, as a leader, don't even give it a second thought.

In Europa Universalis IV you play a powerful sorcerer that acts as the "guiding hand" for the nation. The spells you cast draw on three mana pools: Paper Mana, Bird Mana, and Sword Mana. Bird mana is used to make peace deals, genocide cultures, and stop your people from whining about war weariness. Paper mana, in combination with a gold sacrifice, can be used to cast construction spells, in addition to making a province you gained two years ago a core part of your nation somehow. Sword mana is used for enchanting rebel factions to keep them in line. You generate mana for these pools by sucking the life essence from your monarch and his cabinet of advisors. Be careful, though, as the ones that generate the most mana tend to die rather quickly. You'll frequently see your 6/4/5 monarch die by age 30.

You'll notice that most of the spells are involved with either war or keeping your people from whining about war. Don't worry, that's by design. There's nothing to do if you aren't at war.

I have played this game over 20 hours more than Dark Souls, which was my most played steam game for a long time, so it's 20 hours better, even though I don't know what 1 hours equals in review points. At least it has a higher metahour score in my library. This the Dark Souls of Grand Strategy Games, since you need a Dark Soul to play it, at least in MP.